Party in the Maternity Ward
by SpobyClaceFosterson
Summary: Tumblr prompt. Spencer, Toby and Co. anxiously await the arrival of Baby Cavanaugh.


Spencer Hastings thought she knew pain pretty damn well. They'd been long-time acquaintances. She felt it when Alison went missing and everyone deduced that she was dead. She felt it when her friends and her endure -A's torture. Every horrible thing they had to do just to keep themselves out of jail for crimes they didn't commit, every physical attack against them had hurt. Spencer thought she'd never felt worse pain than when she found the love of her life breaking into her house in the dead of night wearing a black hoodie, and looking for that stupid key. Even knowing now that it was to protect her didn't mean it hadn't hurt then. She thought that pain was something she'd gotten used to.

Spencer Hastings was **wrong**.

It had started with little back and abdominal cramps. Toby was staying the night in Rosewood for a big job his company was working on and being as paranoid from her experiences as she was, Spencer called Hanna to the Philadelphia apartment she shared with her long term boyfriend, Toby, and demanded the blonde pick her up and take her to the hospital. Terrified that something might be wrong with her unborn Godson, Hanna broke every traffic law to get to her best friend and take her to the ER.

Spencer's ER doctor had quickly dismissed her with a mild dose of morphine. She wasn't in labor yet, no dilating, no full on contractions, and the baby wasn't in distress. Dr. Johanson was convinced the baby was just moving more than usual to prepare for his grand entrance due in two weeks.

Did anyone have enough common sense to tell Spencer that morphine has brought on labor before? Of course not. Apparently the dumbass doctor didn't see that as an important tidbit of information to divulge.

Not that Spencer hadn't figured it out herself a few hours later.

Relieved that Baby Boy Cavanaugh wasn't ready to join them quite yet, Hanna had treated Spencer to dinner on the way home, promising to stay with her in case the pains came back.

Hanna was sitting on the couch, watching TV when Spencer, having been home for no more than a half an hour before emptying her stomach of the burgers they'd had at the local diner, went to lay down. And that's where Hanna still was at five in the morning when Spencer called out to her from the master bathroom.

"Han?"

The blonde perked up at her friend's odd tone. "What's up, Spence?"

"I'm having a baby..."

Hanna rolled her eyes. "Well, yea-"

"No, Hanna," Spencer cut her off. "I'm having a baby _now. _My water just broke!"

Rushing off the couch, Hanna practically bulldozed her way through Spencer's room to the bathroom.

"Are you sure?! The baby's coming?"

The brunette nodded from her place on the toilet. "I'm positive- Ah! Contraction! Contraction!"

Holding her best friend's hand, Hanna remembered to check the time. They were going have to be about six minutes apart before they really needed to go.

"Okay, breathe. I need to call Toby! And I'll have him call Jason and your parents on his way back. Oh my god, I have to call Aria and Em! Shit, the baby's coming!"

"Hanna!" The blond was practically hyperventilating at this point and Spencer was more holding her hand than the other way around anymore.

"What?!" The woman turned back to her friend.

"Breathe, Han. I'm the one about to push a person out of me and you're the one panicking. Calm down, okay? I'm Spencer. You think I haven't researched everything and anything relevant to babies since I found out I was pregnant? These things take time. _We have time._ Now, my water's finally stopping. I'm going to clean up and change clothes. You go call Toby and you tell him to get his ass back here before I drop this kid. Okay? I'll keep timing the contractions. Now, go."

Finding it much easier to take oxygen into her lungs now, Hanna did as she was told and walked off the get her phone. Just about everyone who knew the couple immediately put Toby in their speed-dial (if they didn't already) the minute Spencer announced her pregnancy. No one was going to take the chance of having a nine month pregnant Spencer without any way to contact him.

Three rings and a sleepy "'Lo?" greeted Hanna.

"Toby! Thank god, you've got to get back here. Spencer's in labor!"

That woke up the carpenter. "What?! Are you sure? How far apart are the contractions? Is she dilated? Are you at the hospital?"

Questions were flying from him faster than Hanna could answer as the expectant father quickly threw on jeans and gathered his keys and wallet, rushing out to his truck.

"Toby, calm down. Spencer said we've got time, but you need to get here, because I don't know how much. Her water broke and she's changing now-"

Hearing a scream of "Ow! Fuck!" from the master bedroom, Hanna pulled the phone away form her so as not to alarm Toby further, calling out to Spencer.

"Spence? It's been eight minutes since your first contraction. Should I start the car?"

Spencer gasped out a reply from her spot on her bed, gripping her extended belly. "Not yet. Have you called Toby?'

"I'm on the phone with him right now."

"Good. Tell him that if he misses the birth of his first baby, I will castrate him and there will be no second baby!"

Hanna shuddered. Labor had just started. How was Spencer going to be when they got to the hospital?

"Toby? Spencer said she'll castrate you if you're not here when the baby comes, so I suggest you hurry. I'll call you back when we get to the hospital."

On the other side of the line, Toby winced. He was already driving, but it would be an hour still. Unless they wanted a hormonal Mommy hacking up Daddy's manhood, his son better sit tight for a bit longer. The best things in life weren't rushed anyway, right?

* * *

Sitting next to her daughter's hospital bed, Veronica Hastings allowed Spencer to squeeze her hand through another contraction.

Spencer was hurting, sweaty and pissed.

"Where the **fuck **is he?!" The twenty year old growled.

Emily pulled loose strands of Spencer's hair back behind her ears. They'd thrown it up in a messy bun, simply to keep it out of Spencer's way, but odd pieces were beginning to stick to her warm face as labor progressed.

"Caleb just called him, he'll be here soon, honey. Breathe!"

"Ow! Mommy, why did you let me move in with Toby? This never would have happened if you'd made me stay at home!"

Veronica smiled. "Honey, you were eighteen years old, I didn't want to stop you. Now, breathe. That's right, squeeze my hand."

Squeeze was a relative term. Spencer more or less had her mother's fingers in a death grip and was doing her level best to break them, but Veronica remembered labor all too well and had no intentions of voicing her own discomfort. Her daughter's was worse.

Poor nurse Elise was nearly run over as Spencer's boyfriend finally rushed into her hospital room.

"What'd I miss?!"

"What the hell took you so goddamn long?!" Spencer screamed at him. "OW!"

Toby stopped for a moment and took in the scene. His girlfriend lay in a hospital bed with her mother on one side and Emily on the other. Her stomach was still distended and she was screaming obscenities. He sighed in relief. The baby hadn't been born yet. He hadn't missed it.

Rushing over to take Emily's place, his friend smiled at him before kissing Spencer's cheek and mumbling something about it being Hanna's turn. In the back of his mind, Toby remembered the three person limit in the delivery room and rather than Spencer choosing between her best friends, the girls had made a deal of taking turns sitting with Spencer and whoever happened to be in the room when the baby came would be random.

Taking his girlfriend's hand, Toby tried to touch her face, only to feel the sting of a slap on his cheek.

"You son of a bitch!"

Toby winced, but knew Spencer wouldn't mean about 99% of what came out of her mouth during labor.

"I'm sorry, baby. I got here as fast as I could. How are you feeling?"

Veronica nodded her head sagely. Smart man. _Don't _argue with the woman in labor. Just apologize for your gender and move on.

Spencer released Toby's and her mother's hands as the contraction passed. "I feel like I'm dying. What **idiot **said having a baby was beautiful? I'll bet it was a man. It was a man, wasn't it?"

Toby chuckled. "Probably."

* * *

"I hate you! Goddamn it! Fuck!"

The contraction passed and Dr. Renner, Spencer's OB announced she was dilated ten centimeters.

It had been almost a full twenty-four hours since Spencer had checked into Labor and Delivery. No matter what they'd given her, nothing seemed to be speeding things along. Spencer wasn't dilating

When hour thirteen had hit, Aria, Toby, and Veronica had been almost as happy as Spencer to hear that if something didn't change soon, they were preparing an OR for a C-Section. Toby and Spencer hadn't wanted to go that far unless they needed to for the baby's safety, but that was **before **the brunette had felt child labor for the first time.

Everyone there, including the family and friends in the waiting room, was extremely ready for this baby to come out. One way or another.

"Cut me open, I don't give a flying fuck, just get this demon kid outta me!" Spencer had said when Dr. Renner asked how she felt about it.

By hour fifteen, Dr. Renner called off the surgery. Spencer had been there for thirteen hours and her body had only given her two centimeters. But, when the prospect of speeding things up came along, as if the Universe (Finicky little bastard) wanted to specifically fuck with her, two hours later, she'd gained three centimeters.

"I don't want to perform a cesarean if I don't have to. You're moving along, now, so let's wait it out."

That was what Dr. Renner said shortly before Spencer had threatened to maim the poor woman.

Hour seventeen received no progress, but Dr. Renner still said they were staying put for now.

Hour eighteen, Spencer dilated one centimeter further, making the tally, six.

Hours nineteen, twenty and twenty-one earned no dilating, but they _did _earn Toby and Dr. Renner several death threats and a crying Spencer apologizing to Veronica for making her do this herself.

Twenty- two moved them up to seven, eight, and nine centimeters.

And here they were, now. Ready to push.

Spencer screamed, cried, cursed, and at one point, stopped pushing and refused to continue. Emily pressed a cool washrag to Spencer's face, Veronica coached her breathing and Toby held her hand.

Finally at 4:11 a.m., Bentley Ethan Cavanaugh graced them with his presence.

He didn't have a six pack, but his parents didn't mind. He scored a perfect ten on the APGAR test, making Grandpa Hastings proud and had been passed around to every relative... Twice.

Finally, when Dr. Renner had cleared out the groups of people taking turns to see the new addition, and checked Spencer over one more time, the new parents were alone with their baby for the first time.

Spencer rocked him gently, smiling, while Toby sat next to her on her bed, stroking his son's tiny head, carefully.

"Hey, buddy," Toby whispered to him. "I'm glad to say you were worth all your Mom's hard work."

Spencer snorted. "Speak for yourself." She looked down at Bentley with a glimmer in her eyes and playfully teased.

"I'm expecting you to be a genius, Bentley. Got it? I didn't lay here for a full day for nothing. You're curing cancer. At least, the flu."


End file.
